british christmas cake

An easy recipe for a traditional British Christmas cake. Classic make ahead recipe for a dense flavorful fruit cake. Fed weekly with bourbon until ready to assemble with marzipan and fondant.

Easy British Christmas Cake

unsalted butter

brown sugar (firmly packed)

bourbon (plus extra for feeding the cake)

lemon

orange

eggs

tsp vanilla extract

all purpose flour (or plain flour)

almonds (or almond flour)

cinnamon

nutmeg

½ tsp ground allspice

¼ tsp ground cloves

oz marzipan (or almond paste (either golden

sugar sugar

rindless orange preserve (or apricot jam)

Begin by rehydrating the dried fruits. Place these in a large pan and add the butter, sugar, lemon juice and zest, orange juice and zest, and bourbon. Cook over a medium heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is boiling. Lower the temperature and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then tip the contents into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300°F (150C/130C Fan) and line the bottom and sides of a deep sided 8&quot; or 9&quot; cake pan with a double layer of parchment paper.

Once the fruit mixture has been allowed to cool, add the flour, ground almonds, spices, vanilla and eggs to the mixing bowl and stir thoroughly with a spatula or wooden spoon to combine. Take care to ensure there are no clumps of flour left unmixed.

Pour this into the prepared cake pan and bake in the lower half of the oven for 2 hours until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and use a toothpick to make holes all over the top of the cake. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of rum over the top and brush so that this soaks into the holes.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan, before removing and peeling away the parchment paper.

Store the cake in an airtight container, wrapped in parchment and feed with 2 tablespoons of rum every week until about a week before you are intending to serve.

A few days after your last feed, roll your marzipan out on a countertop dusted with powdered icing sugar until it is about ¼&quot; thick and large enough to cover your cake.

Heat the orange preserve in a small saucepan to melt. Use this to brush all over the top and sides of your cake.

Carefully transfer the marzipan on to the cake and press to cover the top and sides smoothly. Trim any edges to fit.

Roll the fondant in a similar way. Brush the marzipan layer again with the warmed preserve and cover with the fondant.

Use any excess fondant for decorating the cake in a festive pattern such as holly leaves and berries. These can be attached to the cake with some more preserve or just a bit of water.

Instructions for Assembly

This looks like such an interesting cake to make. Although I haven't done much with fondant, I'm intrigued. And I love marzipan!

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Top 1 british christmas cake recipes from across the web

The most viewed british christmas cake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

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Easy British Christmas Cake

The most viewed british christmas cake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine